Boasting an amazing selection of the most watched, most influential and most highly acclaimed programmes ever made, The 50 Greatest Television Dramas presents a long overdue assessment of the rich heritage television drama has to offer. Channel 4 invited over 200 of Britain's top television drama professionals – writers, directors, producers and commissioners – to take part in an exclusive poll to discover what they consider the finest dramas ever produced.
Two British best friends and in-laws Dawn and Jackie work together at a factory. When Dawn is diagnosed with a brain tumor Jackie shares $100,000 she's got from her secret lover with Dawn to fulfil her dream - a visit to Las Vegas. They buy two tickets and fly there...
While caring for their dying mother, a child finds solace in a group of friends, but begins to encounter violence at every turn.
Parisian bon vivant, World War II Resistance fighter, Nobel Prize-winning playwright, philandering husband and recluse…Samuel Beckett lived a life of many parts. Titled after Beckett’s famous ethos “Dance first, think later”, the film is a sweeping account of the life of this 20th-century icon.
World-renowned journalist and human rights activist Anna Politkovskaya went from being a local print journalist to braving the Chechen killing fields and exposing Russian state corruption under Vladimir Putin. She refused to give up reporting on the war in Chechnya despite numerous acts of intimidation and violence, including being poisoned. She was ultimately murdered in the elevator of her block of flats and it remains unclear who paid for the contract killing.
An underworld drama set in the early 1980s, about a lonely factory worker whose life is transformed when he becomes a nightclub doorman.
A lesbian in the 1800s who keeps a detailed account of her life written in coded diaries attempts to live independently while juggling an affair with a married woman.
The story of Merseyside mum and campaigner Anne Williams, who lost her son Keven. For nearly three decades she fought the English establishment to expose the truth of what really happened at Hillsborough, and to try and get justice for the 97.
On his way to a Make Poverty History gig in Scotland, Bob Geldof is accidentally stranded by an incompetent chauffeur in a run-down motel in Northern England. To his horror, he discovers a lookalike contest is taking place, and no-one will believe he is the real Bob Geldof. Just when he thinks things can't get any worse, he discovers he may not be the only Bob Geldof in the room... Written by Linda Boulie
Robson Green and Mark Benton co-star in Christmas Lights, a one-off comedy drama for ITV1 centred on two lifelong friends who have always competed with each other. The festive season brings on new challenges and takes their rivalry to extremes resulting in the two friends forgetting what Christmas is really about. Can anything bring them to their senses?
A working-class photographer captures the impact of Thatcherism on the north of England but is unable to escape the poverty and inequality she exposed.
Two scheming demons strike a deal with a punk rock-loving teen so they can leave the Underworld and live out their dreams in the Land of the Living.
A hotel. A cliff. Six lost people, looking for something, or looking to lose themselves.
Anna wakes to kind faces she doesn’t recognize and a remote island she has no memory of. She is forced to re-learn everything about herself, her husband and the baby she is carrying. But when two disfigured people arrive on the island and there is a violent altercation she discovers that the human race is close to extinction and goes searching for the truth about herself.
Svengali tells the story of Dixie, a postman from South Wales, and a music fanatic. All his life he’s dreamed of discovering a great band and then one day, trawling through YouTube, he finds them… ‘The Premature Congratulations’. He hunts them down and offers them his management services. They are young, arrogant, sexy and utterly magnificent. Putting their demo on a cassette tape, Dixie heads out onto the streets of London…
After a stroke leaves her husband disabled and fundamentally changed, a spirited Irish wife struggles to keep her family members together. All the while they are under the microscope of an American researcher documenting their recovery process.
Drama which tells the story of comedian Tony Hancock's love affair with his friend's wife, and her fight to save the man and his career.
The Theory of Everything is the extraordinary story of one of the world’s greatest living minds, the renowned astrophysicist Stephen Hawking, who falls deeply in love with fellow Cambridge student Jane Wilde.
Funny film concerning John Prescott's affair with Tracey Temple
A woman becomes enraged after being passed over for a promotion at her job.
A specially commissioned animation inspired by Barbara Hepworth's art and life.
Short film for Refuge, the national charity for domestic abuse, drawing attention to the shocking rise in violence against women during the 2020 lockdown
Set over the course of an evening, a mother remembers moments from a game she played with her son throughout his childhood. Tragedy strikes when he unexpectedly returns.
'The Butternut Squash Gang' always stumble upon a criminal rouse that is passed off by adults as overactive minds. From their clubhouse in the woods, they must come up with a far-fetched plot to overthrow the baddies and claim victory.
A woman is moving house and as she is unpacking boxes she finds a long lost letter from her grandfather. As she reads it, his words evoke strong emotive memories and she is transported back into her childhood by her grandfathers words. As he shares his love and concern for the natural world around us. The journey back in time leaves Mia (the woman) visually and emotionally moved as she remembers and shares her grandfathers love and hope for the world around us. It is a story that transcends time.
Two strangers witness a mysterious natural phenomenon that reawaken their senses and draws their fractured lives together.
Set in Royton, Manchester, Judy is the uplifting story of a mother struggling to come to terms with her cancer diagnosis. The debut film of acclaimed theatre director Matthew Dunster, Judy stars Maxine Peake and is a Little Brother/ BFI production.
After 6 years of brutal murders, the West Yorkshire Police fear that they may have already interviewed The Ripper and let him back into the world to continue his reign of terror upon the citizens of Yorkshire. Assistant Chief Constable of the Manchester Police, Peter Hunter, is called in to oversee the West Yorkshire Police's Ripper investigation and see what they could have missed.
England, 1969. The fascinating Abbie and the troubled Lydia are great friends. After an unexpected tragedy occurs in the strict girls' school they attend, a mysterious epidemic of fainting breaks out that threatens the mental sanity and beliefs of the tormented people involved, both teachers and students.
A moving depiction of the alternative human and animal perspectives on the implications of climate change.
From its sell-out run at Manchester's Royal Exchange Theatre comes a film version of this unique and critically acclaimed production of Hamlet with BAFTA-nominee Maxine Peake in the title role. This ground-breaking stage production, directed by Sarah Frankcom, was the Royal Exchange's fastest-selling show in a decade.
Every summer, the sheep on Scafell Pike are gathered down to the farm for shearing. On this epic journey, a shepherd reflects on life while caring for his flock in this rugged landscape.
In the middle ages there was an outbreak of dancing manias in Europe that lasted hundreds of years. In the 20th century thousands of Chinese men and some women thought that their genitalia were vanishing, while schoolgirls in Belgium thought that they were being poisoned by a certain brand of fizzy drink. Looking at these various cases, and more, the professor (Maxine Peake) takes us on a musical journey through mass hysteria.
Documentary exploring the key events of 1966, a period when British pop music, fashion and sport was making waves across the globe, but when the nation's upbeat mood was undercut by darker sensibilities.
A gripping story of love, deceit, betrayal and survival set against the backdrop of the Miners' Strike of 1984-85. Michelle is married to Gary, a young miner who goes on strike as soon as the dispute between the Thatcher government and the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) begins. Meanwhile, her sister Linda's husband Paul is a local policeman. Paul becomes more and more voluble in his opposition to the strike, while Linda looks around her and witnesses the women of her community suddenly find a voice and independence. The scene is set for political and personal conflicts which would change their lives forever.
Comic fantasy telling the story of Rebekah, an innocent and beguiling Northern girl who accidentally becomes Chief Executive of News International and gets caught up in a seventies Watergate-style scandal.
The comedienne stars in this festive sketch show, alongside a host of celebrity guests.
A politician learns just how quickly things can go terribly wrong when a career-defining live TV interview goes off the rails due to a surprise coughing attack.
Set in the fields of Devon and the WW1 battlefields of Flanders, two brothers fall for the same girl while contending with the pressures of their feudal family life, the war, and the price of courage and cowardice.
Comedy-drama featuring a group of inept constables who are relegated to the embarrassing "Bike Squad", a new police scheme intended to serve as a more flexible response unit.
Penny works at a supermarket and Phil is a gentle taxi-driver. Penny’s love for Phil has run dry and they lead joyless lives with their two children, Rachel, a cleaner, and Rory, who is unemployed and aggressive.
At the tyrannical court of Athens, pitiless dictator Theseus plans his wedding to Hippolyta, a prisoner of war, while young Hermia is sentenced to death by her own father for loving the wrong man. Meanwhile, in the town below, an amateur theatre group rehearses. And beyond Athens, in the wild woods, dark forces are stirring...
Sludger the aardvark tries to make it big as a drummer in the big city.
A comedian uses her troubled past as material for her stand-up routine, trying to rise up through the comedy circuit by playing Northern England's working men's clubs.
Join Melvyn Bragg for an insightful journey into why “Art Matters,” With a career spanning over 60 years, Bragg passionately advocates for the importance of the arts as he reflects on his early experiences and engages with influential figures from the artistic world.
MP's wife Celia discovers her husband's true colours when she is taken hostage by his criminal business associates.
David Blair directs this powerful British Drama, loosely inspired by John Steinbeck's novel 'Of Mice and Men'. Set in Nottingham, the film revolves around the relationship between the thuggish Danny (Stephen Graham) and Joseph (Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje), a giant of a man with a mental age of seven. When Danny finds himself in debt to a local crime boss, he feels he is left with no choice but to manipulate Joseph into participating in a series of underground cage fights from which Danny can pay his debts.
It's two years since the mysterious disappearance of Kath Swarbrick's older sister Annie, but Kath remains haunted by a need to know what happened. When police investigations wind down, Kath continues the search herself. She gets nowhere until she steals some CCTV footage of her sister on her final day. Visiting the spot where Annie was filmed, Kath becomes convinced she has found a portal to another reality and from this portal Kath is trying to say something.
Diagnosed with Tourette Syndrome at 15, John Davidson navigates his way against the odds through troubled teenage years and into adulthood, finding inspiration in the kindness of others to discover his true purpose in life.
On an isolated English farm in 1657, Fanny lives a quiet life with her oppressive husband John and their young son. One day their life is rocked with the arrival of young couple Thomas and Rebecca who claim to have been robbed and need a place to stay. But are these strangers really who they say they are?
Short film starring Maxine Peake and written by actor Reece Dinsdale
Lola's sister has stopped eating. Lola treats her with the scorn she deserves - she'll snap out of it soon, won't she? Adapted from Booker Prize Winner Hilary Mantel's short story and featuring BAFTA nominated Maxine Peake.
A single mum looks for love in the lonely-hearts pages, but someone has already decided to play cupid - her eight year-old son…
An epic portrayal of the events surrounding the infamous 1819 Peterloo Massacre, where a peaceful pro-democracy rally at St Peter’s Field in Manchester turned into one of the bloodiest and most notorious episodes in British history. The massacre saw British government forces charge into a crowd of over 60,000 that had gathered to demand political reforms and protest against rising levels of poverty.
Drama, entirely in verse, following three men who sleep on the streets of Manchester in their vehicles, having lost all their economic and social power.
Documentary which uses the latest, most detailed imagery to reveal the monthly life cycle of the moon. From Wales to Wyoming, Hong Kong to Croydon, the programme finds out how the moon shapes life on Earth, as well as exploring its mysterious dark side and discovering how the moon's journey around Earth delivers one of nature's most awe-inspiring events - a total solar eclipse. And at the end of a remarkable year of lunar activity, we find out why so many supermoons have been lighting up the night sky.
Two women sit in a barren dystopian wasteland discussing the best way to die.
'Ever had that feeling you're being watched?' A Deaf Blind woman has a man living in her house. She doesn't know he's there. What does he want?
A mysterious — and suspicious — run of ill fortune plagues a teenage girl and her mother and sister on their hillside farm in this folk story set in the dark hills of Wales during the industrial revolution.
Maxine Peake's exploration of the true story of Lillian Bilocca, a largely forgotten but formidable figure in the fight for safer trawlers. The programme explores Lillian Bilocca's fight at the time through archive and dramatic reconstructions based on the play The Last Testament of Lillian Bilocca, written by Maxine Peake.
Johnny Marr has teamed up with the award-winning actor Maxine Peake to create a new project which sets Peake’s spoken word performances to Marr’s instrumental soundscapes. ‘The Priest’ is based upon the characters that Joe Gallagher met on the streets in the first few days after becoming homeless in Edinburgh. Gallagher wrote a diary of his experiences for the Big Issue under the pseudonym James Campbell when he first became homeless in May 2015 and continued until he found a new home in March 2016. This short film was filmed in Manchester and features Molly Windsor in the lead role.
Narrated by Maxine Peake, this feature documentary explores the failures and deception that have caused a chronic shortage of social housing in Britain.
Maxine Peake stars in a short film about three fears (birds, falling, sleepwalking) - filmed and edited in a single day on a mobile phone for Cinema Now, a digital conference held at BAFTA.
Versatile singer/song-writer John Shuttleworth struggles to balance semi-professional obligations - a gig at a care home - with domestic, namely his 25th wedding anniversary.
Documentary following British punk duo Sleaford Mods on their two year journey from Nottingham bedroom recording sessions to chart success
Biopic based on Happy Mondays frontman Shaun Ryder's autobiography, the film will track the singer’s journey from a guitar-loving child to a leading light of Madchester’s party scene. The film was announced in 2019, with Jack O'Connell, Jason Isaacs, and Maxine Peake slated to star. However, as of 2024, its future is uncertain due to creative differences between the writer/director Matt Greenhalgh and the original US backers leading to the latter withdrawing their financing.
Two adult sisters exist dysfunctionally, each limited by illnesses affecting both body and mind — one physically and the other psychologically.
A cleaner in a brand new apartment block begins to suspect one of the residents is a victim of domestic abuse.
Following the artist Phil Collins' search for a decommissioned statue of German philosopher Friedrich Engels in eastern Ukraine, and documenting its journey and arrival to a homecoming party in Manchester.
One of the most controversial writers of our times, join Trainspotting author Irvine Welsh as he undergoes a remarkable trip to find new meaning in his work, life and legacy.
Filmmaker Mark Forbes explores the persistent class barriers within the UK film industry, revealing the struggles, resilience, and untold stories of working-class creatives fighting for a voice in a system stacked against them.
Based on the short ghost story of the same name by Algernon Blackwood from 1909, The Occupant of the Room centers on a schoolteacher whose late-night arrival at a hotel in the Alps leads to a sleepless night full of uncanny occurrences.
A feature length documentary celebrating the life of Britain’s beloved comedy icon Victoria Wood delving into the complex inner world of this national treasure nearly ten years after her passing. Victoria Wood remains one of Britain’s most cherished entertainers – a northern comic genius whose work reshaped the landscape of British humour. But behind the joyous persona – the singer, the satirist, the sharp-witted writer – lay a young woman navigating insecurity, anger, and self-doubt. Told in her own words and through the voices of those who knew her best, the film uncovers the formative experiences and personal battles that powered Victoria’s unmatched ability to make the nation laugh. The film will explore never-before-seen archive material and previously unheard audio recordings, to paint a vivid portrait of the woman behind the fame.
A fun-loving woman expertly juggling the demands of her hectic family life, busy social schedule and successful business gets diagnosed with breast cancer. As her life starts to unravel, she unexpectedly finds solace in a running club for people going through treatment.